WAWA/WeAreWideAwake is my Public Service to America as a muckracker who has journeyed seven times to Israel Palestine since June 2005.
WAWA is dedicated to confronting media and governments that shield the whole
truth.

We who Are Wide
Awake are compelled by the "fierce urgency of Now" [Rev MLK, Jr.] to raise
awareness and promote the human dialogue about many of the crucial issues of our
day: the state of our Union and in protection of democracy, what life is like
under military occupation in Palestine, the Christian EXODUS from the Holy Land,
and spirituality-from a Theologically Liberated Christian Anarchist
POV.

"Observe good faith and justice towards all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all...and passionate attachments for others, should be excluded; and that, in place of them, just and amicable feelings towards all should be cultivated. The nation which indulges towards another a habitual hatred or a habitual fondness is in some degree a slave...a passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils."George Washington's Farewell Address - 1796

We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights; that, among these, are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; and, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it. -July 4, 1776. The Declaration of Independence

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Keep Hope Alive

“I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts.”Abraham Lincoln

REVIEW of Beyond Nuclear: Mordechai Vanunu's Freedom of Speech Trial and My Life as a Muckraker

By Mark John Maguire

Eileen Fleming's book Beyond Nuclear: Mordechai Vanunu's Freedom of Speech Trial and My Life as a Muckraker is a fascinating insight into the life and mind of an activist pursuing a moral crusade against the might of a nation - in this case Israel.

It also provides a journal of such an individual's experiences in the complex and protracted struggle of the Middle East. Her journey of faith and belief in support of the Palestinian cause - and in particular that of Vanunu Mordechai, the Israeli dissident who served 18 years in prison for revealing Israel's illegal nuclear programme - has been a remarkable one: she clearly believes she has a purpose and that she is guided by a higher will and perhaps this is the secret to the huge radical energy she exudes.

Her book is an expression of that energy and of the uncompromising commitment she shares with Vanunu in attempting to right the injustices she sees in the daily lives of Palestinians.

Her conflict, which is charted in the book - and to a lesser extent Vanunu's - has been the wider Palestinian problem and the human rights abuses of the Israeli State

Her visits to Israel and her meetings with Vanunu and others in her efforts to publicize the story the mainstream media largely ignore - especially in the US - is inspiring.

There are few who would doubt the hardships and injustices suffered by the Palestinian people in Israel and its adjacent lands, nor the inadequacy of the international community's efforts to lessen their plight, but Beyond Nuclear brings this sharply into focus.

It also puts the Vanunu Mordechai case in the spotlight - the story of his abduction, his incarceration and the subsequent restrictions placed upon him are all recorded here

.

But it is the humdrum indignities that are suffered by Vanunu, the petty restrictions, the heavy handed reactions of the authorities that are most striking: the sense of isolation which Vanunu endures daily, an outcast from his own people - a man on the outside - which has become a metaphor for the Palestinian situation: the Middle East has always been a cauldron of tension and conflict - it is the story of the Old Testament - but it has never been more complex than it is now; a web of related issues: nuclear, racial, religious and geo-political are stirred into an explosive mix. Vanunu's plight seems to epitomize this concoction: he is a Jew who converted to Christianity, a stranger amongst Palestinians, a man with whom the international community is ill at ease.

Nor are the problems of the Middle East likely to be resolved soon - the international resolve, as well as that of the immediate combatants is simply not there: in August 2009 - in the wake of a long catalogue of such wrongs - Fleming recounts how the eviction of Palestinians from the Sheikh Jarrah area of Jerusalem drew international censure from the European Union, the UN, Britain and the USA: yet nothing has been done to this day to address such breaches of international law.

Indeed, one of the recurring themes in Eileen Fleming's book and in Mordechai's many interviews given since his release from prison in 2004 has been the fact that although the international community tacitly acknowledges Israel's nuclear capability, it has never subjected Israel to a single Atomic Weapons Authority Inspection. It is the white bear in the corner no-one will speak of.

There is much to exercise activists like Eileen Fleming. In some ways Beyond Nuclear is a dispiriting tale of episodic and endemic complaisance by the international community to serious abuses of international law, an unending cycle of oppression, resistance and terrorism; but it is also an affirmation of the ability of human beings to speak out, their willingness to take enormous risks with their own personal safety and to refuse to be cowed by the might of the State.

And there are the occasional brighter moments - for instance, the Israeli soldier playing with Palestinian children and Fleming's making contact with him from a Palestinian position and exchanging gestures of goodwill. It is a reminder that human beings populate such stories, committing kindnesses and atrocities with seeming equal randomness.

But a state is not the sum of its people, it has its own personality. Israel, as a State, is determined to defend itself and believes its prime objective is to protect its security by whatever means it deems necessary.

Fleming quotes Archbishop Desmond Tutu saying that after a visit to Israel in 2006: "Israel will never get true security and safety through oppressing another people."

Such wisdom and perceptiveness seems to fall on deaf ears, however - even when it is spoken by respected people like Tutu and it is hard not to escape the conclusion that until people of good will on both sides control the argument, progress will not be made.

Eileen Fleming's book reveals the frustrations of the truly committed in dealing with the half-committed - and the merely good-willed.

There is no doubting the strength of her own convictions and sense of mission - she will always, one suspects, have difficulty in finding people who can match her relentless energy and conviction.

In the end, Beyond Nuclear: Mordechai Vanunu's Freedom of Speech Trial and My Life as a Muckraker is an extraordinary tale of courage and conviction and the struggle of the individual's right to tell the truth and the State's determination to obscure it or subvert it for a perceived greater good:

The truth, as Oscar Wilde observed, is rarely simple and never pure.

And by the same token, the lesson Eileen Fleming would have us draw would be that the perceived good is seldom so good as to be worth it.

Even if I knew the world would end tomorrow; I would plant an olive tree today." - St. Francis of Assisi

KEEP HOPE ALIVE

Eileen Fleming's first of seven journeys into Israel Palestine resulted in "KEEP HOPE ALIVE". This tale is a fictionalized retelling of the well remembered memoirs of a 1948 refugee from the Upper Galilee who made his way to the USA and realized the American dream. After a lucrative career in the Defense Industry during the Cold War and THAT DAY we call 9/11, Khaled Diab brought together American Jews, Christians and Muslims to respond to evil with good by founding the 501 3-c Olive Trees Foundation for Peace.

"Keep Hope Alive" tells his story and is an historical chronology with connections to antiquity, and hope for the future.

"Keep Hope Alive" is also Eileen's spiritual journey told with humor and insight through six fictional characters who represent six ways to intuit God.

Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace Laureate, wrote:

"I have just finished reading your wonderful book ‘Keep Hope Alive’. I found it most inspiring and can see in your story the influences of your Spiritual journey – Merton, Dorothy day, Fox, St. John of the cross, Francis!! All of whom I share as they are, I believe, great guides to the Spiritual journey. The book brought me closer to you Eileen – and I was Moved by your great heart and compassion for all those who suffer – Especially the Israelis and the Palestinians and people of Gaza.Thank you for your faithfulness to them (and for helping to provide and Plant so many Olive trees – a real symbol of hope for the Palestinians." - Mairead Maguire, June 1, 2009.

"At first I thought this had something to do with the famous line of Jessie Jackson. I'm delighted to say it is much, much more. The author shows that there are many people from all over the world who are moving in the right direction to establish peace in the Middle East. The organization Olive Trees Foundation for Peace/OTFFP is Arabs, Jews, and Christians who have formed a non profit non political group who have one goal; to have Israelis and Palestinians live side by side in peace. These are people from all walks of life who are committed to changing the area into a peaceful region. Social movements like this grow until finally government jumps on-board. As dialogue continues to grow on this subject government will be forced to rethink its approach to the region. This is a book that should be read by anyone does not believe there can be peace in the Middle East. It should also be included in schools and on the college level to help focus on how the area can move toward peace." – Gary Roen, Book Reviewer from www.midwestbookreview.com

MEMOIRS of a Nice Irish-American 'Girl's' Life in Occupied Territory

For One Woman, September 11 Sparked an Odyssey of Faith to the Palestinian Territories" In my dream I stood at the edge of a dried up pool where crumbling stone columns were overgrown with vines and weeds and scores of doves and pigeons nested and flew. To my right was a large shade tree, but to my left I saw a few square squat dwellings with large satellite dishes attached to them. I remembered thinking the moment I woke up from that dream what a strange place it was, but then I quickly forgot all about it. That is, until the afternoon of June 12, 2005, four years later, when I found myself standing at the edge of a dried up pool where crumbling stone columns were overgrown with vines and weeds and scores of doves and pigeons nested and flew."

Impelled, compelled, and propelled by her faith as a progressive Christian, Eileen Fleming has journeyed four times to the Occupied Palestinian Territories. There she met with democratically elected members of Hamas, scores of Palestinian Christians and Muslims, and a few 21st-century prophets. The pages within this brave new work contain some of those interviews and her experiences listening to Christians, Muslims, Jews, secularists, anarchists, Nobel Peace Prize Nominees, and the whistleblower of Israel's underground WMD Program. This fascinating portrait will open your eyes and heart, and you will look at the Middle East in a new light.

A Must Read for Anyone Interested in the World,

July 15, 2007 By Theodore Micceri "Themistocles"

Eileen Fleming's Memoirs is both an extremely interesting and highly informative account of the history and current situation in occuppied Palestine. The author provides a considerable amount of well documented information regarding the roots, history and anti-semitic nature of Zionism in both it's Chrisian and Jewish forms. She clearly delineates the Theocratic Ethnocracy that is today's Israel and demonstrates though example after example how it disciminates against all Goy (non-Jews and obviously inferior peoples), whether they be Christian, Muslim or of any other religious belief.

As a result of this persecution, Christains today make up fewer than 2% of Israel's population although they represented 20% in 1948. Israel's consistent persecution has forced most Christians to flee their homeland and seek asylm in other nations. Her historical explications showed me the clear parallels that exist between the Italian Mafia and the Israeli Hagganah and it's spin-off's like the Irgun and the Stern Gang.

Perhaps the most interesting section is her extensive description of Mordeci Vanunu, the secular Jew who told the world about Israel's Atomic Bombs and as a result, spent 18 years imprisoned, mostly in solitary confinement. She likens him to Biblical prophets, who pointed out impending doom. I recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in the future of the world, because, as Britain's Tony Blair noted, probably 70% of the world's conflicts can be traced directly to the Israeli/Palestinian situation.

Order online through Amazon.com :(Click on either book or buy now button)

"HOPE has two children.The first is ANGER at the way things are. The second is COURAGE to DO SOMETHING about it."-St. Augustine

"He who is not angry when there is just cause for anger is immoral. Why? Because anger looks to the good of justice. And if you can live amid injustice without anger, you are immoral as well as unjust." - Aquinas

Everyone has the right to freedom of
opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions
without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and
ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

" In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway."-Mother Teresa

“You cannot talk like sane men around a peace table while the atomic bomb itself is ticking beneath it. Do not treat the atomic bomb as a weapon of offense; do not treat it as an instrument of the police. Treat the bomb for what it is: the visible insanity of a civilization that has ceased...to obey the laws of life.”- Lewis Mumford, 1946

The age of warrior kings and of warrior presidents has passed. The nuclear age calls for a different kind of leadership....a leadership of intellect, judgment, tolerance and rationality, a leadership committed to human values, to world peace, and to the improvement of the human condition. The attributes upon which we must draw are the human attributes of compassion and common sense, of intellect and creative imagination, and of empathy and understanding between cultures." - William Fulbright

“Any nation that year after year continues to raise the Defense budget while cutting social programs to the neediest is a nation approaching spiritual death.” - Rev. MLK

Establishment of Israel

"On the day of the termination of the British mandate and on the strength of the United Nations General Assembly declare The State of Israel will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel: it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion it will guarantee freedom of religion [and] conscience and will be faithful to the Charter of the United Nations." - May 14, 1948. The Declaration of the Establishment of Israel